Whenever new opinion data about young people is released, there's a frenzy to figure out what it all means. Such is the case with the latest Harvard University poll showing Obama's approval dropping among 18-29 year olds – 11 pts in the last six months.

Here's how the director of the Harvard institute that conducted the poll sums up the results:

Young Americans hold the president, Congress, and the federal government in less esteem almost by the day, and the levels of engagement they are having in politics are also on the decline.

But just because Millenials (and many other age groups) are disgusted by all things Washington doesn't mean we're becoming politically apathetic.

It shouldn't be surprising that a president who campaigned on a platform of seemingly transcendent "change" would lose popularity when said change takes the form it has. Obama's (significant in my opinion) political victories include the complex and controversial Affordable Care Act and the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among many others. The benefits of these, though, often aren't immediately palpable to the broader public – especially young people who are just developing financial skills and handling benefits. (Conservative misinformation campaigns and congressional Republican intransigence probably don't help either.)

The inability to effectively communicate the benefits to younger Americans, or to address youth unemployment (BLS data has around 37% of non-disabled 20-24-year-olds not working), is a big player in the turn off. Perhaps it's a reason for Obama's – I hate to use the word – pivot toward economic inequality.

Such frustration with politics as usual (the target of Obama's '08 campaign) doesn't automatically mean depoliticization, and lower levels of "political engagement" among young people doesn't mean they don't care what happens in their country or elsewhere in the world. Just ask members of the deposed regimes in the Arab world.

Closer to home, I've been keeping an eye on my own friend group, many of whom graduated college within the last three years. A number of people I went to school with work for elected officials. Other classmates now work for thinktanks, nonprofits and service organizations. And even if they don't work in such sectors or are struggling to find work, my peers regularly engage each other in political discussions. Some are political activists, and a couple have even been arrested for acts of civil disobedience for climate justice. And then, of course, there was Occupy.

Younger Americans also have a critical role to play in shaping the future of US foreign policy, as Eva Pereira noted last year in Forbes:

It will … be the responsibility of Millennials to correct a misconception that has plagued older generations of foreign policy thinkers – that all Islamist movements are inherently uniform and equally opposed to Western values.

A failure to rethink Middle East relations, and the continual use of dirty military and national security tactics – possibly the Obama administration and current political establishment's biggest failure – may lead to the most disenchanting and historically destructive result for young generations: more war.

Many young Americans have lived much of their lives in a wartime America, and are attuned to its impact (personally, the son of my frequent substitute teacher was killed in Iraq). Whether America would be able to stop the insanity of a few fringe hawks from spreading and starting another unnecessary ground conflict is debatable. But youth political engagement beyond just public office (and an attendant high level of dissatisfaction) would be a huge part if successful.

So does youth dissatisfaction with the present state of American politics but hunger for change mean we're bound for '60s era mass protests and social movements? Not necesarily – again, it's hard to generalize in the short term without using the type of anecdotal evidence I cited above. It's also hard to really hard to predict what effect presidential approval (or Congress's continually cratering approval for that matter) has on the non-electoral side of politics.

Yet, despite our distaste for those in power, many young Americans are active and will continue to be. And while the revolution might not be imminent, political discontent coupled with an educated, motivated, and in many ways screwed population, can be an explosive combination.